Hey Wolfy!
 
This is a question I get asked a lot and even though I am not the best
person to ask this question to, simply because I don't feed live mice to
the ferrets, the people I know that do feed combinations of live and dead
animals to their ferrets all feel the same way I do... It does not make
them more aggressive.
 
I recall many, many years ago hearing about the same fear when feeding
live or dead prey to dogs or cats.  The "myth" that spread about was that
after giving these animals the taste of blood, that they would end up
attacking babies in their sleep and killing unsuspecting owners.  Rumors
were often spread about blood turning friendly animals into vicious
killers.
 
Well, we all know that to make a statement like that, we'd need proof,
and from what I have experienced, feeding mice and chicks to my ferrets
has not altered their temperament one little bit.  I think that if
there were cases of this happening, that we would have to examine the
circumstances of what changed once a live diet was fed.  I would have to
ask if it were possible to change the ferrets temperament if the owners
began to take a hands off approach and made less and less physical
contact with the ferrets.  But even then, and keeping in mind what Bob
has talked about in terms of evolution and domestication, this doesn't
even seem to be a possibility.
 
As we all know, ferrets do well with human contact, gentle touches and
refraining from any negative reinforcements what so ever.  My ferrets are
always deemed to be so calm and even my vet feels that this is unusual
even in a city filled with ferrets.  And we feed the mice and chicks.
 
I think like any fear we may have, we need to challenge them and then
work through them as best as we can.  The decision to feed live or dead
prey to ferrets is up to the owner.  When we were first owned by ferrets,
they certainly did not have such a great diet as they do now.  The bottom
line is that as long as we recognize that ferrets do better on better
quality foods, then we are going in the right direction.
 
Hope this helps!
 
betty and her blur o'fur
for the love of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3936]